Overview of Your Private Filming Day

YOUR FILMING DATE:

We will be scheduling a private day of filming for your video project. Booking a filming date is a very important first step that will help us powerfully move forward with the prep work for your shoot!

If we already have a filming date scheduled, then please mark that date in your calendar now, and make sure you block out the entire day for production. If you haven’t yet scheduled your filming date, talk to us ASAP so we can get you on our production calendar.

We can’t wait to get you in front of our camera soon!

WHAT TO EXPECT ON YOUR DAY OF FILMING:

SCHEDULE FOR THE DAY:

Regarding the schedule for the day, as soon as we arrive on set, the first thing that will happen is you will get your makeup fully done by a professional makeup artist, and your hair touched up. This process happens at the same time as we are setting up equipment and framing the shot for your videos. It typically takes around 60-90 minutes to fully set up and get you ready. We typically start our video shoots at either 9am or 10am, and our shoots typically average around 8 hours, though they may be either longer or shorter. The length of our shoots depends on several factors, including: how many videos we are filming with you that day, the approximate length of the videos, your past experience and comfort level on camera, how many times you will be changing outfits, how many times we need to change locations or settings, etc.

MAKEUP:

On the day of filming, we will hire a professional makeup artist to be on set for you, to do your full makeup + any hair touch-ups. Your video package may include either a half day or a full day of makeup. Talk to us about that if you are unclear as to what your video package includes.

Regarding your hair, please come with your hair already done the way you like it. The makeup artist will be able to spend a few minutes doing hair touch-ups, but there won’t be time for her to do full hair-styling or a blowout. Please plan to get your hair done professionally, either the day before or the morning of the shoot, if you are someone who needs to have that done in order to look and feel your best.

WHO WILL BE THERE?

Regarding who will be involved and in attendance for your filming day, it will be both Steve and Jaime Geffner on set. Steve will handle all the technical work including setting up equipment, like cameras, lighting, and sound. He will also be the camera operator. Jaime will be the main producer and director. She will also coordinate and manage everything for the on-camera talent. In addition to Steve and Jaime, we will also have a makeup artist who will arrive separately, and be there either all day, or for the first 4 hours of the shoot. Typically we come in 2 separate cars – 1 for the Geffners, and 1 for the makeup artist. We also encourage you to have an assistant, friend, or support person on set with you, if that would make you feel more comfortable. We typically don’t need anyone else’s assistance, but if that would make you feel more at ease, or if you have special needs to attend to, then it’s totally fine by us.

FOOD:

Regarding food on the day of filming, Jaime and Steve will bring their own food, snacks, and waters to make sure that we’re taken care of for the day, so you don’t need to worry about us. You should think about bringing any food or snacks that you need to get yourself through the day. You definitely need to stay well hydrated with water, and well nourished with food or snacks. You need to keep your energy and your blood sugar stable, so you will be able to think clearly and have the stamina to get through the whole day. That being said, we suggest you either have someone with you on set that can get you food during the day, or bring food with you that you’ve bought or packed up ahead of time so that we don’t need to fully stop production in order to get food. We are normally on a tight schedule, and especially in the winter months, we have less and less daylight hours available to us. As a general rule of thumb, when it comes to production, things always take longer than expected, so we don’t typically plan for extended lunch breaks. We normally just work right through the day, snacking when we need to. We are there to make sure we get everything we need to give you the most amazing and professional videos, so that is always our first concern. And when it comes to you, we want to make sure you can comfortably get through the day, which sometimes can be long and exhausting.

YOUR PERSONAL SCHEDULE:

Regarding your personal schedule for the day, please do not schedule anything at a particular time, like a phone call you need to be on, or have a specific end time that you need to leave the set to get to a dinner date, or get home to your family. Remember, we are trying to put together great videos for you, and that’s more difficult to do when either we or you are feeling rushed. So for this one day, please plan to not have any additional concrete plans. Just be present with us for as long as it takes, so we can get what we need in order to deliver a stellar finished product.

SLEEP WELL!

We also want to forewarn you that the day of filming can be long and exhausting, so you may not want to have any other responsibility that night. You also may want to plan a relatively easy and low-stress day for the following day, as you might be tired. However, one thing our clients normally report to us is that they sleep very well the night of their shoot, after their much-anticipated filming day is complete!

TIMELINE FOR EDITING YOUR VIDEO:

It typically takes approximately 4-6 weeks after our day of filming to edit your videos. That being said, if you have a firm deadline for when you would like your videos to be completed, please let us know, so we can find a filming date that will meet your needs.

During the post-production process, we will need a few things from you, such as your logo, your YouTube channel login info, and possibly some pictures or graphics, so we will be in communication with you during that time to request the elements that are needed to complete your videos.

As soon as your videos are complete, we will send you a link to be able to review and approve them. You will have an opportunity to let us know if there are any changes that need to be made to any of the videos. Your video package includes one round of editing revisions per video, if necessary.

If we are editing a series of videos for you, then we typically edit the first one and send it your way for your review, so that you can approve the template before we move on and complete the rest of the videos in the series.

GEFFNER PRODUCTIONS FILMING DATE POSTPONEMENT POLICY:

Keep in mind that our filming schedule tends to fill up anywhere between 4-12 weeks in advance. Once we have a filming date scheduled, it is reserved exclusively for you, and that means we will not give it to anyone else. Because we are a small company, our filming dates are one of our biggest revenue generators for our business, which effectively means that if an upcoming filming date gets canceled without plenty of advance notice, then our company is likely losing money!

We typically allow for 1 filming date reschedule without penalty, as long as it occurs no less than 6 weeks prior to the scheduled filming date, since we know that sometimes “life” happens and changes our well-intentioned plans! However, we respectfully request that if you do need to change your filming date for any reason, that you do so with at least 6 weeks advance notice. The reason for that is because we typically book filming dates with clients no less than 6 weeks in advance, so any less notice than that often means that we won’t have time to rebook that date. (As you are probably already aware, there is a lot of pre-production work that goes into making a filming date happen, so we normally don’t suggest that clients book their filming dates less than 6 weeks in advance). All that being said, we (of course) want to accommodate you and keep you happy, and also be understanding and empathetic if something else comes up that makes it impossible for you to keep your filming date as-is.

That being said, below is our formal policy regarding what happens upon rescheduling a filming date. This information was included in the agreement you signed when we started your video project, but we just want to make sure it’s clear to you now that we either already have or are about to put an actual filming date in the books!

GEFFNER PRODUCTIONS FILMING DATE POSTPONEMENT POLICY:

If we block out a specific filming date in our production calendar, with the agreement that it represents a firm commitment from you, then, obviously, no further efforts are made by us to schedule that time with anyone else. Once booked, if the project is postponed within the time frame as outlined below, it is unlikely that this date can be re-booked with another client.

In the case that rescheduling needs to happen more than once, or less than 6 weeks prior to the scheduled filming date, the following outlines the official Geffner Productions Filming Date Postponement Policy.

1. If a second notice of postponement is given MORE THAN SIX WEEKS prior to the scheduled date of the shoot, you will be liable for a $1,000 rescheduling fee (to be collected at the time of the cancellation/rescheduling).

2. If a notice of postponement is given TWO WEEKS TO SIX WEEKS prior to the scheduled date of the shoot, you will be liable for a $1,750 rescheduling fee (to be collected at the time of the cancellation/rescheduling).

3. If a notice of postponement is given LESS THAN TWO WEEKS prior to the scheduled date of the shoot, you will be liable for a $2,500 rescheduling fee, plus the full fee of any other hired vendors, such as makeup artists, hairstylists, location fees, etc. (to be collected at the time of the cancellation/rescheduling).